It really happened.

[Bob Wright]

My Sunday School teacher, also our church music director, went up to Indiana last week to visit his parents. His father, ninety years old, was a WW II veteran, served in Pattorn's Third Army in Europe. While visiting, the man told this story from WW II:

Their unit had liberated a town that had one of the Nazi death camps. Their commanding officer asked if any wanted to visit. My Sunday School teacher's father and one other man went to visit. As they reached the gate of the compound, a former inmate, just skin and bones, asked for a cigarette. They gave him one, and entered the compound. There they saw the bodies stacked waiting for cremation, and the ovens. Sickened, they left pretty soon. As they left through the gate, the man was still there. Only now he was dead. He a died while they were in the camp.

Bob Wright

 

[Kevin]

Have you been to Germany Bob? I went with my parents years ago. We went to Auschwitz I think it was. Really somber. I was a teenager and remember it pretty vividly. Very quiet. Nobody talking etc. They Leveled most of it but left like one oven one gas chamber one barracks. I can only imagine what it was like to be there back then.

Years later went back and the seasonal girlfriend had no interest in visiting. I'm not sure why she refused.

 

[Bob Wright]

Have you been to Germany Bob? I went with my parents years ago. We went to Auschwitz I think it was. Really somber. I was a teenager and remember it pretty vividly. Very quiet. Nobody talking etc. They Leveled most of it but left like one oven one gas chamber one barracks. I can only imagine what it was like to be there back then.

Years later went back and the seasonal girlfriend had no interest in visiting. I'm not sure why she refused.

No, Sir, never been to Europe. Never expect to, now. Wife won't go unless we can access it via Interstate. She won't fly, and I'm not too keen on cruise ships. My last cruise took me to Korea.

Bob Wright

 

[Kevin]

Well you got me beat. I've never been on a cruise ship.

One more thought. I was thinking of the man who died. He died a free man.

 

[sfhogman]

Here's an article on Auschwitz in the latest online edition of Der Spiegel:
Seems as how the Germans have not been too terribly interested in prosecuting those involved...

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/the-german-judiciary-failed-approach-to-auschwitz-and-holocaust-a-988082.html

Worth reading.

Jeff

 

[pisgah]

Just a note of historic correction -- the Auschwitz complex of concentration camps was located in Poland.

 

[sfhogman]

Right you are.

 

[Jeepnik]

My Sunday School teacher, also our church music director, went up to Indiana last week to visit his parents. His father, ninety years old, was a WW II veteran, served in Pattorn's Third Army in Europe. While visiting, the man told this story from WW II:

Their unit had liberated a town that had one of the Nazi death camps. Their commanding officer asked if any wanted to visit. My Sunday School teacher's father and one other man went to visit. As they reached the gate of the compound, a former inmate, just skin and bones, asked for a cigarette. They gave him one, and entered the compound. There they saw the bodies stacked waiting for cremation, and the ovens. Sickened, they left pretty soon. As they left through the gate, the man was still there. Only now he was dead. He a died while they were in the camp.

Bob Wright

Buchenwald. My father was 6th Armored division, part of Patton's Third as well. He only ever said he was there. That and that they took a lot less prisoners after seeing that.

 

[RugerHound]

Have you been to Germany Bob? I went with my parents years ago. We went to Auschwitz I think it was. Really somber. I was a teenager and remember it pretty vividly. Very quiet. Nobody talking etc. They Leveled most of it but left like one oven one gas chamber one barracks. I can only imagine what it was like to be there back then.

Years later went back and the seasonal girlfriend had no interest in visiting. I'm not sure why she refused.

No, Sir, never been to Europe. Never expect to, now. Wife won't go unless we can access it via Interstate. She won't fly, and I'm not too keen on cruise ships. My last cruise took me to Korea.

Bob Wright

A couple after my own heart! If I was filthy rich and could afford a private jet, I'd fly. I enjoy flying, but I will not subject myself to the commercial air transportation debacle. I've heard too many war stories about cruise ships, so that's out.

I'd love to be able to visit Europe and Israel... The only two places on earth I'd like to visit. But it ain't gonna happen.

 

[volshooter]

Back in the early 70's we went to (sorry for spelling) Daukual . Still intact and the gas chambers still smelled. Wire and ovens still there. Made a lasting impression on me and my parents.
It really did happen to the Jews. To this day I cannot understand the mindset of the Nazis or the Jews who went with little resistance. Facts are Hitler had a Jewish male lover during the first world war. As well documented the German high command during the second war practiced homosexual activity on a regular bases in retreats. I am not knocking their sexual preference just pointing it out.
Animals, sub humans.
I admire the German race. Not for their cruel past but of their drive to be the best.
Yes I have been there and seen a camp. I will never understand what could drive those bastards to do such things.

 

[DA_TriggR4Ruger]

Would love to visit France an Israel some day...

 

[Colonialgirl]

Well you got me beat. I've never been on a cruise ship.

One more thought. I was thinking of the man who died. He died a free man.

I been on FOUR; All in my youth;

USS President Hayes,Navy Troop Transport; Hawaii to California

An LST (name and number unknown) Honolulu to the big Island

USNS Geiger (T-AP-197) From Brooklyn Naval Yard to Casablanca, Morocco
(Her Maiden voyage)
and then
USNS Geiger (T-AP-197) From Casablanca, Morocco to Brooklyn Naval yard on her Anniversary voyage.

 

[Ugly Hombre]

Yes Sir- it really happened and the GD Nazi's learned it from the Bolsheviks.
Still going on in North Korea...

 

[blume357]

My wife and I went with some friends to Europe a few years back... we ended up in Krakow and they went on a tour of Auschwitz.... my wife and I elected not to go... I can honestly say I would not have been able to take it... one of the folks who did go could not walk through the gates.... in fact I have trouble just typing the name with out my eyes watering....

I just read it took close to 7,000 people to run the place....

 

[ProfessorWes]

I toured Dachau while TDY in Munich in '89. It was, to put it mildly, a sobering experience.

One photo I saw in the Dachau museum gives me nightmares to this day. It depicted one of the inmates being subjected to hypothermia experiments, and I've been haunted by the look of utter despair and hopelessness on the man's face ever since.

Speaking of reluctance to take camp guards prisoner: There's a story about the liberation of Dachau by Patton's Third Armored I came across some time ago - perhaps during my visit there - about some SS guys who were caught hiding in a garden shed in the town of Dachau itself. Unfortunately for them, the GIs who accepted their surrender had just come from the camp...and the surrendering SS goons were promptly put up against a wall and burned alive with a flamethrower. I'm hoping the bastards are still burning in hell, myself.

 

[vito]

In the late '80's, but before the breakup of the Soviet Union and the "end" of the Cold War, my then 13 year old daughter traveled to Europe with a youth orchestra. She was (is) a gifted flutist and despite her young age, since she was the principle flute of the orchestra, she was asked to go on this trip. They went to several of the then-Communist nations to perform, as a sort of goodwill trip. While in Poland they took the orchestra to visit Auschwitz, which at that time had been left totally un-sanitized. The Poles wanted people, mostly their own youth, to see the horrors perpetuated by the Nazis. The effect on my daughter was profound, and affects her to this day as a wife and mother at 40 years old. When I was a youngster, in the early '50's, my mother had a friend who had numbers tattooed on her arm. I was told that she was a concentration camp survivor, but at that time no one wanted to talk about it, and I was too young to understand what it really meant. Almost all of the survivors are now gone, but hopefully there is enough documentary evidence and witnesses such as some mentioned in this thread, that mankind will never forget the depths of depravity that so-called civilized, educated and religious people can sink to.

 

[blume357]

That is the thing that we should never ever forget... we are not talking about some third word dictator in a country where most of the people live in poverty or the jungle... this was one of the most modern nations in the world if not the most modern.. with some of the most highly educated and intelligent people.... and some how the leaders convinced them to go along with this..... I'm still trying to get a grasp on the 7,000 workers that were needed to run the place.... and there is no way that you can keep secret what is going on in a place with 7,000 employees.... but then I wonder what we would do if the choice was to work there and get paid and fed well and live comfortably... or get put on the other side of the fence......

 

[Big Old Boy]

I watched a show on Hist. about this just last week,I had to stop and change the station to sad to watch.

 

[Colonialgirl]

What's REALLY sad is that SO many of those exterminated in these death camps boarded the trains almost in a "Sheep like" fashion , accepting the story that they were being relaocted to a "new" area set aside for them. They left their established homes and businesses to go. Many of the males were WW1 veterans with decorations for Bravery and service in the German Army.

 

[Ordguy]

Early 70's I was stationed in Guenzberg Germany. Discovered EURRAIL train pass. One trip was to the Dachau camp. Not sure if it was my imagination or what, but when the group I was with got close to the ovens, there was a distinct odor. Locals still insist they didn't know about it.

 

[graygun]

It is hard to understand only in the extreme,organized form they had taken it to. We like to imagine we are basically good but I don't believe we are inherently so. They chose to worship a man and grind underfoot any vestiges of Christianity. All ( well...most) hailed the beast.

 

[blume357]

I don't want to this to get into a religious debate but, Hitler was a Christian.

Gun point: I thought for years one of the reasons that so many folks had to give in with out a fight was because Hitler had taken their guns with laws the Nazis had passed. I was corrected a couple years back, the onerous gun laws in 1930's Germany were made before the Nazis' took power.. these laws were developed to protect the people from the Nazis'......

One of the smartest things I've ever read was in a news letter from the South Carolina Grass Roots folks... it said it did not matter how 'good' a law looked, you needed to look at it from the stand point can your enemy use it against you.

Best example I can give is the 1968 gun control act and the part that now does not allow 'felons' own guns.... simple solution to ultimate gun control... make everyone a felon.

 

[Tensaw]

Years ago I travelled a lot to Europe, mainly Germany and Holland but also to Austria, France, Switzerland, Spain, Luxemburg and East Germany. Beautiful areas in all the countries. I enjoyed all the cultures but least of all the French. However, I never wanted to go to the death camps. I read too much history. But I did go to the German Reichstag in Berlin. It contains the history of Germany but very little devoted to Hitler's régime.

 

[graygun]

True,the gun control folks will keep trying to win by whatever means.

Hitler may have been a nominal Christian in his early years but rejected it and became something very different. IMO,he would not have done all that evil if he were even mildly attuned to God.

 

[volshooter]

Good post dixieboy.

 

[blume357]

Yes, good job.
What I just learned doing some research on the Hitler religion thing was that for hundreds of years both the protestant and catholic churches had promoted the hate of Jews in that part of Europe at least. Hitler was just an extreme example of this upbringing.

Seems part of the nature of we humans is to demonize those different from us... Islam has done this and convinced many of their youth that the true path is to kill anyone who is not a true believer.... my fear is that it is contagious and we are reciprocating.... unfortunately innocent woman, children and men are usually who get hurt and killed most.

 

[graygun]

Even if there were no religions in the entire world,this barbarity would still happen. It is part of the human condition...sad to say. We are basically seperate from divinity,thrashing-about down here and will do anything to accomplish an end...jmo (just my observations) of course. God makes his saving appeal to us but we are very resistant to it.

On a different note,hope all had an enjoyable weekend! I bought two somewhat disassembled 7.5hp Mercury outboards Friday evening off of Craigslist.

 

[pisgah]

One item of evidence that Holocaust deniers refuse to accept is perhaps the most damning of all -- the Nazis' own records. If ever a stereotype was true, it is that Germans are obsessive recordkeepers. Everything right down to the smallest detail of the Final Solution is documented on paper and in official photographs and films The volume of documentation is simply staggering. No sane individual could deny the facts of what happened.

 

[blume357]

Another disturbing item on this... I read that after Truman was president some movie company was going to do a documentary on him... a producer went to his home in Missouri to discuss it with him.. they had to sit on the porch because Truman's wife would not let a Jew in their house......

I just don't get it... and I grew up in the South in the 60's....

 

[pisgah]

Not sure that I believe this. - DixieBoy

Oh? How about this ? At its peak in the 1920s, KKK membership in the US was 4,000,000+, as big (or bigger) than the NRA today. People who haven't studied history (or lived it) haven't a clue how things have changed in the past 100 years in this country.